GIRL SWIMMER'S DEATH
SEQUEL TO RECORD FEAT TRAGIC AFFAIR IN GERMANY (Received August 23, 5.5 p.m.) BERLIN, Aug. 22 The deatn occurred to-day of Fraulein Ruth Litzig, who was taken to hospital yesterday after swimming nonstop for 79 hours, thus creating a new world's record. Fraulein Litzig was the most courageous of Germany's girl swimmers. She died from heart failure due to strain. More than 150,000 people had paid a sum equivalent to sixpence each to see her swimming slowly like an imprisoned fish round and round a pool at Essen. She had kept herself awake only with the aid of a "jazz band and a loudspeaker. Finally, with unseeing eyes and distorted face, the girl had collapsed and was saved from drowning by her swimming instructor, who leaped into the pool, took her out of the water, wrapped her in cotton woql and rushed her to hospital. The cheering crowd of onlookers thought the girl was suffering only from natural exhaustion. She never awoke from her stupor. Her heart stopped beating, but she was revived by injections. However, all efforts to save her life were unavailing.
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New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21578, 24 August 1933, Page 9
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187GIRL SWIMMER'S DEATH New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21578, 24 August 1933, Page 9
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